The Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) today launched a door-to-door vaccination drive, ‘Duare Vaccine,’ for residents of the town who are immobile and are unable to visit camps for the shots.

The SMC said the idea behind the campaign was to speed up the vaccination process. An ongoing house-to-house survey that began earlier this month has identified around 165 such unvaccinated residents in 11 wards so far.

“We have rolled out the doorstep vaccination today. We have decided to ensure that the entire population of the corporation area eligible for the Covid shot is inoculated against the disease. The purpose of the programme is to vaccinate the residents who are unable to reach the vaccination sites and to ramp up the vaccination drive. We have almost completed the first dose-around one lakh people- -even those who are not residents of the civic body area,” said the chairperson of the board of administrators of the SMC. Gautam Deb.

According to Mr Deb, the unvaccinated persons were being identified by the survey of the health workers and also through voter lists of elderly persons. “The survey is going on in all 47 wards, and it has found 165 residents in 11 wards who have not received the jabs. Fifteen persons were listed for the vaccination in ward 4 today. The highest number of such persons have been reported at the Urban Health Primary Centre (UPHC)-1-80. The inability of elderly and ailing people to travel to jab centres, and who are immobile due to their advanced age, will be vaccinated through this drive.

Their family members can enlist their names by producing the medical certificates at the UPHCs or the SMC,” sources said. People skipping 2nd dose Meanwhile, health department officials expressed concern at people not turning up for their second dose, although they were long overdue. They said that the centres had been recording a drop in the number of second dose recipients.

“Many people whose second doses are long due now are not turning up. As such, many people have missed their second dose on time,” said an official. Jump in dengue cases Rising dengue cases in the SMC area have triggered concerns.

According to figures available with the civic body, four new cases have been recorded in the last five days, taking the total number to 88 cases since January. Sources said there were three active cases in wards 2, 9 and 10. The highest number of cases has been detected in wards 2-14. According to Mr Deb, the corporation was taking all necessary steps to curb the disease.